Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Early bookings on! Take ur pick in the domestic broking biz, Investsmartindia, Geojit, Indiabulls, Sharekhan....

The domestic stock broking business looks to be headed for days of hectic M&A activity. We may soon have a whole host of foreign companies buying out Indian companies. Things have started moving in this direction already. Take a look at some of the deals that have been struck over the past few months:

1). Sharekhan (Promoted by SSKI): Interested parties - New Atlantic Partners and IDFC.

2). Investsmartindia (Promoted by IL&FS): E*Trade.

3). Geojit Financial Services: BNP Paribas.

4). Motilal Oswal: New Vernon Private Equity Ltd and Bessemer Venture Partners.

5). Indiabulls: No single strategic investor. But there seems to be a beeline of foriegn investors for this company. They have a phenomenal 53 per cent stake in this company. See the Sept'06 shareholding pattern.

I think quite a few of these will be sold off sooner than later. Their share prices have witnessed good jump in recent times. However, among the listed broking firms, there is one company called "Indiainfoline". This company has so far remained out of the limelight. Difficult to believe that it hasn't been approached by any of the large foriegn investor yet. I think something could be cooking up here as well. My conspiracy theory is that it will be bought out by Anil Dhirubhai Ambani's new venture R Trade. Having already missed the rally in Indiabulls, IL&FS Investsmart India, Geojit; Indiainfoline is a company one should watch out for in days to come.

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